Thumbs

Posted Tuesday, June 30, 2009, at 7:52 AM

Handy darn things thumbs are. Ever try to pick up something without using them? Hit one with a hammer hard enough, and the statement "sticks out like a sore thumb" will make perfect sense to you. I bet climbing a rope is about impossible without thumbs, and getting the hook out of your fish would be pretty tough too I imagine, let alone putting a worm on the hook in the first place.

There are geographic thumbs like the chunk of land sticking out called the thumb of Michigan. There are rules of thumb, with a definition of that term being... "A rule of thumb is a principle with broad application that is not intended to be strictly accurate or reliable for every situation. It is an easily learned and easily applied procedure for approximately calculating or recalling some value, or for making some determination." I thought I knew what a rule of thumb was, but it's definition sure makes it seem complicated.

So as you can see, there are several different thumbs I could talk about, but today I want to talk about green thumbs... I don't have one, Margie apparently does.

From the Brian Hoag dictionary... Green Thumb: A person with skill at growing things, especially when referring to house plants and home gardens. I won't count farmers in as having green thumbs unless they are gardeners too. To me, a farmer has to be green through and through. It still amazes me what goes on in the fields around my place.

A year ago we didn't have a garden of any type, and we wanted one, but were still trying to figure out how we were going to take care of the farm in the first place. This year Margie worked up a little spot and planted some tomatoes, onions, carrots, radishes, lettuce, and potatoes, and the stuff is growing like crazy as far as I can tell. To make this blog a reasonable length, I'll just say that Margie brought in her first harvest from her garden. A couple radishes for starters, and I'm sure she is well behind most of you experienced green thumbs... the garden wasn't in the ground very early due to some travel plans. Still, she was excited, the radishes were delicious, and I can barely wait for the tomatoes.

Most folks around us seem to have green thumbs too. Our little garden can't hold a candle to our neighbors plantings, but it is the first garden we've had on the farm since we moved to Nebraska a year and half ago, other than the two tomato plants we had last year. We feel like we're still making a little progress around the place though our pace seems to have slowed down some.

One final note about green thumbs and my lack of same. Though I can kill any plant inside a house or garden with little effort, I seem totally incapable of killing the weeds on the farm with any real success. The weed war continues, and for all the chemical and mechanical counter attacks against the invaders, few gains against the enemy have been made. While ever so slow progress seems to be occurring, I attribute it to Margie's hand to hand combat with the weeds and not my efforts with a sprayer and mechanized assault vehicle (riding mower).